Buttkickin' Halloween Songs: "Psycho Circus" -- Kiss (1998)

Step up!
No one leaves ’til the night is done
The amplifier starts to hum
The carnival has just begun…

You wanted the best? You got… a buttkickin’ title track from an otherwise crappy album.

Look, I make no apologies for being a Kiss fan, and by “fan” I mean “actual fan of the music”, because at the end of the day all the make-up, pyrotechnics, merchandising, crass commercialization, and other such lamentable issues remain highly insignificant to me. Without the tunes, the band is nothing.

And Kiss could crank out some seriously awesome tunes.

Now as far as Psycho Circus is concerned, even the title screams out “Buttkickin’ Halloween Song!!!” Listen to the ominous tones of a creepy circus calliope that start the song, the building power chords that erupt into Paul Stanley’s soul-piercing shriek, reverb-drenched verses and sing-along choruses, all wrapped around a heavy rock song that reveals a tale about… something.

Perhaps it’s an analogy that draws parallels between a band rockin’ out onstage in front of a willing crowd and a creepy nighttime circus of the strange, the weird, the awesome, the powerful, and the cheeseball. Therein celebrating the inclusiveness of surrendering yourself to the dark uncertainties of white-faced demon-winged gladiators of metal battling it out in a ROCK Colosseum.

Or some such nonsense. It’s a cool tune, it fits with Halloween, why not give it a go?

And I say welcome to the show…